Springfield-based developer The Vecino Group is adding to its portfolio of buildings downtown.
The company recently broke ground on a planned four-story apartment building at 310 N. Jefferson Ave., to be known as Cresco.
Like Sky Eleven, The U and The Sterling — three Vecino Group projects a block away — the project's 106 beds will be marketed to college students, Vecino's Director of Student Housing Tim Roth said.

Between the Brewery District Lofts and the newly announced Cresco Apartments, there's a change from renovating and refurbishing all of the old towers downtown into lofts and apartments to new construction that's filling in blighted areas or parking lots. It's great to see the city encouraging development where about 50 years ago they tore down large portions of the downtown core to build parking lots and more modern office buildings. Hopefully this trend continues.

No new development, but just doing a little bragging on my adopted hometown, Hotel Vandivort was named by "Boutique & Lifestyle Lodging Association" as the boutique hotel of the year. It's really great to see Springfield get recognition even if it is just a small city. I posted about the hotel on the previous page. If you're ever in Springfield I would recommend staying there.

Developer Tom Rankin confirms Springfield Plaza, located near West Bypass at West Sunshine Street (Missouri 413), will be anchored by a Burlington Coat Factory, Petco, and Ross Dress For Less. While Ross already has an existing Springfield location, this will be the first Petco in Springfield, and the first Burlington store in southern Missouri. The name of a fourth main tenant, an national shoe retailer, has not yet been announced. This phase one of the district will include at least 90,000 square feet of retail space, and will be located just west of the current Walmart.

Hopefully, we'll see a lot more of this happening downtown. Columbia, Lawrence, and Iowa City are exploding with that kind of development!!

We will see, now that the city has run out of older buildings to use for residential, the next logical options are building new residentials. I've also noticed that the city has been making moves to gentrify the neighborhood west of MSU campus and south of Downtown.

Full-time enrollment has grown nearly 13 percent in the past five years, and demand for on-campus housing has forced the university to get creative with existing space.
Big questions loom, however, including where to construct a traditional 400-bed dormitory and how to pay for that expense while also launching a major overhaul of Woods House, which was built 45 years ago.
"We are at a point that our growth is going to essentially cap out, given the residential housing we have, unless we expand," said MSU President Clif Smart. "We have, for several months, been working a proposal.

If approved, the new residence hall could open as early as the 2019-20 school year.
The board, in deciding to move forward, would also have to weigh in on a final location. Several options are on the table, including:
• A university-owned lot on Walnut Street, just south of Kentwood Hall
• Privately owned property on Holland Avenue, across from Strong Hall
• A site that would replace an existing parking lot."

Just some construction pictures of the last phases of Bear Village. Right of the building being built in the top picture, it looks like they're laying the foundation for what I believe will be the last building, which will be at the corner of Grand and Kimbrough. The bottom picture is an additional building behind the main complex. Though the whole complex is better than the ugly blighted houses that used to be there, I wish the buildings that were along Kimbrough had some retail options at the street level. The street is two blocks away from the campus and Kimbrough is a heavily traveled thoroughfare so I feel like there was a really missed opportunity here, but I digress.

"After months of deliberating, Missouri State announced plans to move forward with a new residence hall. The university's Board of Governors signed off on plans to hire a consultant to design a 400-bed, "traditional-style" hall aimed at freshmen along Holland Avenue, on the west side of campus. If everything falls into place, students could move in fall 2019."

"A Springfield-based hotelier recently purchased a downtown office building, and hopes to convert it into a hotel catering to millennials.

Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO of O'Reilly Hospitality Management, told the News-Leader Monday that his company has received preliminary approval from Maryland-based lodging giant Marriott International to turn the 430 South Avenue building into a Moxy hotel.
"It's very modern, and alternative," O'Reilly said of the brand. "It's very different from anything Springfield has."

Missouri State University, developer Vecino Group and a division of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce are partnering to assess the feasibility of adding at least one new structure, largely devoted to office space, in the area known as IDEA Commons.
The university already operates several facilities in IDEA Commons, which sits between downtown and Chestnut Expressway.
All the facilities opened in the past decade and were repurposed from past uses. The eFactory, a space for startup companies, was formerly a turkey processing facility. The Jordan Valley Innovation Center — which houses more established, high-tech companies — comprises much of a former feed mill. And Brick City, home to the university's art programs, used to be a refrigerated warehouse.
MSU President Clif Smart said JVIC, the eFactory and Brick City are fully occupied and that MSU views IDEA Commons as a success story for the community that it wants to see "move to the next level."
In an attempt to do so, MSU and its partners are looking at developing an area generally southeast of the corner of Boonville Avenue and Phelps Street. The 2-acre site currently consists of a university-owned parking lot and a nightclub on property recently acquired by Vecino.

A proposed residence hall, adjacent to Missouri State University, is expected to include a parking garage, large dining hall and 2,300 square feet of retail space.

The MSU Board of Governors received a sneak peek this week at the preliminary design for the seven-story, 405-bed "traditional" dormitory on Holland Avenue, which runs along the west side of the campus.
"We roughly know what it will look like," said Matt Morris, the university's vice president for administrative services. "We know how many beds will be in it. We know what parking spaces will be there."
Morris said much of the bottom four floors of the building is expected to be parking for residents, with space allocated for dining, laundry and retail space. The top three floors are slated to be housing, mostly two-person rooms and at least four shared restrooms per floor.

A pair of renderings released Monday provide the first look at the Boomer Town Studios project on National Avenue, just north of Grand Street. Plans for the new development near the main entrance of Missouri State University include a four-story structure with a mix of restaurants, retail space and student housing. The project includes 70 furnished, micro-efficiency studio units.Anna Eatherton, a spokeswoman for the project, said a total of seven structures were cleared to make way for the Boomer Town Lofts.

After years of delays and a change in
developers, construction has begun on what will be the largest solar farm in Missouri. In a news release, Nixa said a groundbreaking ceremony for the 72-acre project would be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday at 1565 W. Mt. Vernon St. The project, which includes 33,288 solar panels, is led by Gardner Capital of Springfield working with Nixa, Nixa Utilities and MC Power Companies of Independence, the release said. Nixa has agreed to buy 100 percent of the power generated by the farm. The plant is expected to meet about 9 percent of Nixa's yearly power demand while reducing the city's carbon footprint.

Glass Hall is the headquarters of MSU's College of Business, and with 5,500 students — up 900 students in the past five years — it is the largest on campus. Academic areas include accounting, marketing, finance, information technology, merchandising and fashion design, and construction management.
MSU President Clif Smart described the building project, five years in the making, as a "great milestone in the history" of the fast-growing university. He singled out lawmakers, former Gov. Jay Nixon and donors for the critical roles they played.
More than $6 million of the cost was raised through private donations.
Smart said the new spaces provide students with "cutting-edge technology, state-of-the-art facilities, classrooms and collaboration spaces that will prepare them for successful careers in business and as citizens of the world."

The Jalili family — who owns high-end eateries Touch Restaurant, Flame Steakhouse and Black Sheep Burgers and Shakes — will be opening Chops as part of a new mixed-use development in a blighted portion of southeast Springfield.
Chops will have 2,000 square feet of outdoor seating, complete with a fireplace.
The interior of the restaurant could seat up to 135 people, he said.
The lofts, some of which will be available fully furnished, will be a mix of 30 studios and 36 one-bedroom units.